Waco employers, local government and educational institutions have long prided themselves on working together to create and fill jobs.
But Rick Tullis recalled Wednesday the turning point a few years ago, when he and other local workforce leaders realized they needed to level up.
Tullis, the lone candidate for McLennan County judge, was part of a panel with top Texas State Technical College and Prosper Waco leaders at the all-day “Future of the Texas Workforce” symposium hosted by The Texas Tribune and The Waco Bridge.
The symposium drew more than 140 people to TSTC’s new Construction Technology Center. Video for the event is available online.
In a panel moderated by Bridge Editor-in-Chief J.B. Smith, Tullis remembered how Waco’s economy started growing unexpectedly within a year or two of the initial blow of the pandemic in 2020.
“We realized all of a sudden we had about 5,000 jobs coming to our community, which for our community, that’s a big number,” said Tullis, founder of Capstone Mechanical and a former Midway Independent School District trustee.
“And we’ve never really seen that before. And at that point, the strategic switch flipped. Before that, it was more, ‘Hey, we do economic development because we need to find good jobs for our citizens.’ At that point it turned to ‘We need to build a workforce so that we can keep attracting companies to come to McLennan County.’”
Since then, TSTC has worked with the city and McLennan County to build the WorkSITE, a $22 million training center in Waco’s central industrial district that provides intensive short-term training tailored to jobs local industries need to fill. Tullis was co-chair of that effort, and he intends to make workforce development a top priority as the county’s top official.
“We cannot take the focus off workforce development because we will not have economic development if we don’t have workforce development,” Tullis said.
The WorkSITE, which opened last year, is part of an ecosystem of local workforce training efforts that includes career and technical training in local public schools, high school dual-credit programs at TSTC and McLennan Community College, and Upskill Waco, Prosper Waco’s training program that provides credentials for Waco workers.
Panelist Mike Reeser, chancellor of the 11-campus TSTC system based in Waco, said other communities could learn from the coordinated workforce training efforts here.
“I think there’s truly a sense of community spirit here in Waco that is uncommon, and it’s a bit of secret sauce,” Reeser said.
“When it comes to workforce development, the Waco industrial community is not shy about spelling out to their education partners the needs that they have in the workforce,” Reeser said. “And I don’t mean just ‘I need a welder tomorrow.’ It is, ‘I’m going to need 50 welders next year.’ The proactive dialogues that go on between industry and educators are as good as anywhere in the state.”
But a stubborn gap remains between the supply and demand for skilled workers in the Waco market. Prosper Waco data show that 77% of middle-income, mid-skill jobs require more than a high school degree, but less than 40% of the Waco population meets that criteria.
Waco has some 40,000 college students among its three main institutions of higher learning. But while MCC mostly serves Waco-area students, most Baylor University and TSTC students come from outside the Waco market and tend to seek opportunities elsewhere.
Prosper Waco CEO Jessica Attas said her nonprofit is working with local public schools and colleges to create career pathways well before students graduate from high school. But meeting the needs for skilled workers requires expanding opportunities not only for traditional students but for populations such as ex-offenders, veterans and women returning to the workforce.
“Institutions of higher education last academic year faced the beginning of the demographic cliff that they knew was coming – the decline in colleges of college-age people,” she said.
“So if you look at our graduating classes every year, (the number of) high school graduates is going down, down, down. We’re not going to be able to graduate our way out of these problems. Which is why it’s incumbent upon all of us to think, how do we get unconventional and get all sectors of the labor force engaged? How do we get people reskilled and upskilled?”
The decline in young workers is expected to worsen in coming years, according to a report from Texas 2036, a policy think tank that was an event sponsor. Public school enrollment in Texas last year declined for only the second time in the last four decades — the other decline happening during the 2020 pandemic. Most of that loss was among young children and Hispanics.
In the Waco-based Education Service Center Region 12, school enrollment dropped by 1.8% in 2025-26 compared to the prior year.
Texas’ total population is projected to grow by 46% by 2060 but the population under 18 by a meager 5%. The result would be a notably grayer population and a high demand for workers, especially those doing physical labor.
In the meantime, Reeser said communities can help address the skills gap by bridging the “knowledge gap” that young people and families have about the job market. He said there are far more possible careers available than when he was young, and many high-paying jobs require specialized training rather than a four-year degree.
“It will take an intentional effort by all of us to solve the knowledge gap,” he said. “Because the skills gap occurs because there’s a knowledge gap of the possibilities.”
Disclosure: McLennan Community College and Texas State Technical College have been financial supporters of The Waco Bridge, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in The Waco Bridge’s journalism. Find a complete list of them here.
